Heart Health Archive

Research we're watching

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Eating an egg a day may help protect against cardiovascular disease, according to a study published online May 21 by the journal Heart. Researchers found that people who ate an egg every day had an 18% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 28% lower risk of experiencing a deadly hemorrhagic stroke, compared with people who didn't eat eggs.

The study included more than 400,000 adults ages 30 to 79. Participants were from 10 survey sites in China. Researchers looked at how often study subjects reported eating eggs and then tracked their health for nearly nine years using registries and other methods.

By lowering your blood LDL ("bad") cholesterol level, even if it is normal, you help reduce your chances of having a heart attack. It's especially important if the LDL level is above 130 milligrams per deciliter. For every 10% drop in your cholesterol level, your heart attack risk potentially falls by 20% to 30%.

There are several steps you can take to lower your cholesterol level, like losing weight if needed, being more active, and choosing healthy foods. Here are three simple steps toward a healthier, cholesterol-lowering diet:

In the journals

If heart disease runs in your family, improving your fitness may be a great way to help prevent it, according to a study published online April 9, 2018, by Circulation.

Researchers reviewed data from about 502,000 people, ages 40 to 69, who filled out questionnaires about their current physical activity and family medical history. The researchers also measured the participant daily activity level, grip strength, and cardiovascular fitness.

Research we're watching

It seems the old adage "everything in moderation" might have an exception — smoking. A study in the January 24 issue of The BMJ found that smoking even one cigarette a day carries significant health consequences, namely a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.

Using data from 141 different studies, involving millions of participants, researchers compared people who smoked either one, five, or 20 cigarettes each day. They found, counter to what many people assume, that rates of heart disease and stroke were not reduced as much as expected in casual smokers compared with pack-a-day smokers.

Strategies that cultivate self-awareness and compassion may help you lose weight and keep it off.

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Of all the recommendations for preventing heart disease, maintaining a healthy weight tops the list. Excess weight can raise your blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol values, all of which harm the heart. But with about one in three Americans now overweight or obese, weight loss clearly remains a stubbornly elusive goal for many people.

One strategy that's gained traction in recent years is to focus less on what you eat and more on how and why you eat. How? By practicing mindfulness, which teaches you to focus on the present moment, while peacefully acknowledging and accepting your feelings and thoughts and the sensations in your body. Granted, that may sound a bit touchy-feely. But a review of a dozen studies, published in the March 2018 Current Obesity Reports, concluded that there is strong support for including mindful eating practices in weight management programs.

Sharing readings from a home monitor with your physician may help you reach your blood pressure goal more quickly.

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For treating certain health problems, finding the best drug or combination of drugs at the correct dose often requires some trial and error. High blood pressure is a good example. Because this common problem raises heart attack and stroke risk, the sooner you can get your blood pressure down to a healthy range (130/80 millimeters of mercury [mm Hg] or lower), the better. New research suggests that people could speed things up a bit by taking a more active role in the process (see "Tracking your blood pressure at home: Does it help?").

"The study showed that a period of home blood pressure monitoring — one week per month — was sufficient to guide people to better blood pressure control," says Dr. Paul Conlin, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief, Medical Service, at the VA Boston Healthcare System.

Advancing age may warrant changes to preventive therapies for heart disease. But one size does not fit all.

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Currently, the average life expectancy in the United States is about 79 years. But among people who survive to age 80 and beyond, health status can vary quite a bit. Some stay hale and hearty for years, while others gradually become weak and frail.

These differences are one reason there aren't any set guidelines for preventing heart disease in octogenarians. But there's a larger underlying issue — one that also explains why heart attack risk calculators (such as www.health.harvard.edu/heartrisk) don't allow you to enter an age above 79.